All posts tagged Sols Systems

In this morning’s Web roundup, the gender-discrimination trial against Kleiner Perkins enters its second week. an Uber data breach took months to be disclosed. And a look at a group of 26 women who make up an investment group. Read More »

As an early employee at 3-D printing marketplace company Shapeways Inc., design guru Kegan Schouwenburg had the technology on her mind constantly–especially when she was on her feet. One day, as she was walking the 25,000-square-foot factory floor (rather uncomfortably) in her black leather platform boots, she became convinced printing custom orthotics would be a perfect fit.

“There’s a stigma about orthotics now. It’s sweaty and it goes in your shoe,” said Ms. Schouwenburg of the industry Global Industry Analaysts Inc. pegs at $4.7 billion in 2015. “They are either seen as expensive and hard to get a hold of or basically a disposable product that you cut to fit your foot and then put in your shoe.”

So last May, after talking it over with early Shapeways investor Zack Schildhorn of Lux Capital, she founded Sols Systems Inc. to reinvent the category. The New York-based company has created a smartphone app that allows people to take videos of their feet. Sols then runs algorithms against those videos, pulling out data points and creating a model of each person’s foot. After applying Sols’ core technology, Sols prints custom orthotics on 3-D printers.

“What she’s doing is cutting edge,” said Mr. Schildhorn, who led a $1.75 million investment in Sols in December and holds a board seat. “It was only recently that you could produce something that size, profitably at scale.” Read More »

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